Lawrence of Arabia’s Brough Superior SS100 Motorcycle | March 20, 2012 at 12:43 pm The movie Lawrence of Arabia opens with a scene of Sir T.E.Lawrence riding a Brough motorcycle and crashing. The Number plate shown on the motorcycle is UL 656. I guess that the movie makers used a stuntman double for actor Sir Peter O’Toole. , and the movie makers did not use the Number GW 2275. please correct me if i am wrong. The movie inspired me to own a motorcycle.When I was 24 years old ,my dad bought me a 250CC JAWA motorcycle. I subsequently became a stuntman with South India Stuntmens Association, did many daring stunts on motorcycles., before i retired as a stuntman. Now I am 62 years and still ride my JAWA-YEZDI 250cc. March 20, 2012 at 1:58 pm It sounds like you have had quite a life so far. I’m surprised that you were inspired by a movie with a motorcycle accident that ends in death. You must be fearless!

It has been years since I last saw the movie and I have no idea what the license plate number was on the motorcycle used in the movie. As a result I am in not in a position to comment on whether you are correct or not, but given your interest in this matter, I suspect that you are right. I would be surprised to find out that they used his actual motorcycle in the movie. Not only would they use a stunt double, they probably used a stand-in motorcycle as well. They would not want to damage the actual motorcycle. Keep riding, April 13, 2012 at 6:15 am Mr.Tim Haupt, The movie Lawrence of Arabia inspired me, and i became a motorcycle freak when I was 24 yrs old. Im 62 yrs now and still ride a JAWA-YEZDI 1995 – 250 CC Bike. during my youthful days I became a stuntman and did a few daring stunts like jumping over a moving train.I have a vcd on this stunt. As for the bike in the movie Lawrence of Arabia I have a DVD and the number plate shown in the movie is UL656.

I was facinated by this number and used it on some of my stunt motorcycles. Man, what lovely reminences :). God bless you and keep up the good work. you can write to me at :jayakumarramasami@yahoo.com gordon wilson The exhaust pipes on the bike used in the movie are different to those in your pictures, more modern mufflers I’d say. Roger Hopkins July 6, 2012 at 4:02 pm Hello Steve I came across your very interesting website and its comments about T E Lawrence’s Brough Superior SS100 – Registration No: GR 2275. As a documentary film maker, I’ve been associated with the motorcycle on several occasions and know the present owner well. Believe me, the very act of sitting on the machine is electrifying! If ever there was a spiritual scent attached to a man made object, this is it. Lawrence’s beloved Brough is probably the most famous road going vehicle in the world, and certainly the most valuable. It currently resides in London’s Imperial War Museum London, and is the very stuff of iconic history. One of your contributors discusses the present black colour of the tank.

When Lawrence crashed the bike in 1935, the tank was badly damaged, and a rare photograph taken just after the accident shows this very clearly. The bike was quickly returned to George Brough’s workshop where a new aluminum tank was fitted, but this time it was painted completely black. This is the tank we see on the machine today. The former silver looking tank was in fact black on top with a thin gold key line separating the opposite shades. Ironically, the damaged tank was almost certainly repaired and sold as a spare by Brough’s workshop. One has to remember that in those days preserving the Brough’s original tank would have been unimportant – back then no one could have imagined how famous the bike would become. Miraculously, the Brough survived any further serious damage, and interestingly the small scrapes and dents caused by the accident are preserved to this day. Even the stretch mark where George Brough straightened the bent handlebar is perfectly in evidence. The motorcycle used in David Lean’s classic movie was a poor substitute for the real thing, and had the film been made today, I’m sure a doppelganger of the SS100 (with correct number plate!) would be top of the props list!

When ‘Lawrence of Arabia’ was premiered in London, the real GR 2275 stood in pride of place in the foyer of the Odeon Liecester Square. Star of the show Peter O’Toole delighted the world’s press by sitting himself firmly on the Brough! I understand he too received the spiritual electric shock. Roger Hopkins, London UK November 26, 2012 at 5:43 pm I saw Lawrence of Arabia when a small boy and was fascinated by anyone who had a job that involved blowing up trains and riding motorcycles, and yes I’ve been a motorcyclist all of my adult life. When Lawrence died another Brough (paid for by Charlotte Shaw and Nancy Astor) was on order. I understand that his own Brough had a bespoke petrol tank on it and this had been taken off to be transferred to the new bike, so it is likely that the tank on the bike he had the accident on was only lent to him by the factory.

June 24, 2013 at 4:34 am hi i found it most intresting reading about lawrence more so as i went to buy a home at flambrough head and was told buy the present owners at that time that lawrence had built this for him and his friend where this was true i didnt know but apprently it was confirmed he used a different name for this at the bottom of this garden was a sidecar over grown with grass and weeds 8 yeras later i went to see if it was still there and yes it wasi bought this sidecar for 40 pounds in 2010 to restore it inside were two letters to lawrence from agentlman who lived in robinhoods bay they were of a very personal nature i just wondered if there was ever a mention of him owing an old sidecar who knows i have this fitted now to a panther August 20, 2013 at 3:21 pm INTERESTING TO READ ABOUT THIS BIKE BECAUSE ;- IN THE EARLY 1960S I WAS A YOUNG MOTORCYCLE SALESMAN AT JENKIN AND PURSER IN SOUTHAMPTON AND A

 KEEN VINTAGE ENTHUSIAST WHEN OLD BIKES WERE JUST “JUNK”.

WE HAD A BRANCH IN PORTSMOUTH AND SOMEONE HAD TAKEN IN AN OLD BROUGH WITH A WINDOW CLEANERS SIDECAR ON IT THAT HE HAD BOUGHT FOR A FEW POUNDS, IT HAD BELONGED TO A T.E. SHAW AS FIRST OWNER IN THE OLD BUFF LOG BOOK . A SMALL BIT OF PUBLICITY IN THE LOCAL PAPER ABOUT HOW IT WAS THE BIKE LAWRENCE HAD BEEN KILLED ON. MY BOSSES THOUGHTTO GAIN A BIT OF FREE ADVERTISING AND OFFERED TO RENOVATE IT FOR THE OWNER FOR FREE. IT CAME UP TO THE SOUTHAMPTON WORKSHOP AND THE YOUNG APPRENTICE DISMANTLED IT AND PUT THE BITS IN A TEA CHEST. THE MECHANICS THOUGHT IT WAS JUST SCRAP AND HAD NOT THE SLIGHTEST IDEA ABOUT RENOVATING OLD BIKES. I TOOK THE BLACK CELLULOID COVERED HANDLEBARS, COMPLETE WITH ALL CONTROLS AND FOR OVER A YEAR THEY SAT PROUDLY ON MY DESK IN THE SALES OFFICE. THE LAST THING LAWRENCE HAD TOUCHED.

IT WAS BEFORE THE FILM AND NO ONE KNEW WHO LAWRENCE WAS. THE MECHANICS THOUGHT I WAS A BIT WEIRD.THE BIKE WAS JUST JUNK TO THEM AND I EVENTUALLY CONTACTED THE OWNER AND SUGGESTED HE RECOVERED HIS BIKE, PUT THE HANDLEBARS BACK IN THE BOX. I COULD PROBABLY BOUGHT IT FOR £20 IF I HAD WANTED. WONDER WHA THOSE HAIRY ARSED MECHANICS WOULD THINK IF THEY KNEW THAT YEARS TO COME THAT WOULD BE THE MOST EXPENSIVE BIKE IN THE WORLD, WORTH MORE THAN THEY WOULD ALL EARN IN A LIFETIME. January 12, 2014 at 7:57 pm Having recently read extensively on the subject of T E Lawrence and visited the ‘usual sites’ in Dorset, before Christmas I arranged to meet my daughter in London and visit the Imperial War Museum to view the Brough Superior on which he met his untimely end. Unable to find the exhibit I enquired at the information desk where it was.

I was informed that it had been privately loaned by an individual who they had recently asked to take it away as it was no longer thought to be ‘relevant’ to their collection. Apparently this had caused all sorts of problems to the owner as he had nowhere to store it and who needed to arrange shipment with little notice given. Needless to add they were unable to give me any details of about the owner due to the ‘Data Protection Act’!! (Total bollocks. Why do these people always say this when they merely want to mess you around?) They helpfully (and rather patronisingly) told me that they were about to have a major refurbishment and that if I liked motor bikes they would have one used by the Taliban on display when they re-open. I found it hard to hide my excitement. August 20, 2014 at 11:56 pm So nice to come across this page. I was brought up on Lawrence of Arabia and have read virtually every book available about him+The Seven Pillars of Wisdom and seen the famous movie and a really bad one of him going to I think it was the peace negotiations. Anyway that was a very forgettable movie.

It should be pointed out that typically Peter O’Toole made a fine figure of a hero because he was so tall and yet the real ‘Lawrence’ was maybe five feet for inches tall on a good day. Plenty of photographic evidence for that. He was an incredible man. People say “He was very strange” ….. er ja…It takes a very unusual person to do all he did. Thank God for unusual people. April 23, 2015 at 6:38 pm Hi Steve I work at Clouds Hill for the National Trust, so there isn’t much I don’t know about TEL Bob is right, the bike is no longer at the IWM in London but at their branch in Duxford. However, it is not on display. Which is annoying because we refer all our visitors to London, should they wish to see it. I expect it’s in the corner of a warehouse somewhere collecting dust, which is criminal. Unfortunately, we couldn’t provide adequate security at Clouds, which is a shame as that’s where it belongs. Although we are trying to get it placed in Bovington Tank Museum.

Not sure whether you know, but he had Brough put smaller wheels on the back of his bikes so that he could touch the ground. Last year we had four Broughs at Clouds and one of them was his so I measured the seat heights and his bike was approximately 2″ lower than the rest. But Mark was wrong about his height. He was actually 5’7″ tall. The sculptor, Eric Kennington produced a marble, life sized effigy of TEL which is in Wareham Church in Dorset. Regards December 8, 2015 at 2:11 am Some points in brief for you collectors. T. E was 5. feet five and a half. He said so himself. O’Toole was way too tall for the part at 6.ft..3 but Lean liked to glamorise things. Part of the struggle was for TE to overcome his height disadvantage in leadership. The movie did not show this. TE may not have been homosexual: just frustrated with bad experiences with women. The JAP engine was used extensively in grass track racing right up until the 1970 s.

It is very good with alcohol fuel as alcohol does not need big air cooling fins. I had one (single cylinder JAP) myself. TE borrowed Charlotte Gs. “Shaw” name for his later years. He wasa very good motorcycle rider: skilled; and he was capable of moving quickly down country roads. But he mostly traveled at 40 MPH.( he says so.) Most of the credit for the bike should not go to George Bruff, rather to JAP engines as they were before their time. I am lookig for one for my Harley ..to replace the Harley engine. Hard to find. ( here in NYC) Point of note: The modern Brough Superior has no hope of success. The name was bought by a businessman. I dont have time to look up the name. The reason it has no hop is because fundamentally a motorcycle is a piece of sculpture and a mode of transport after that. The modern brough is a 90 degree twun and is therefore ugly. It does not resemble the old one. Lawrence would never buy one. Nor would I. Also bike people do not like a stressed engine. Allstress is to be in a frame. I have more history. A lot. But later.

Paddy The Mick. February 16, 2016 at 5:43 am No, no-one likes a stressed engine. That’s why Vincents are so unpopular and cheap to buy. No one likes them at all. Unfortunately some Harley riders have a skewed view of how a motorcycle should ride. I’ve never had a Harley pass me on any of my Vincents on a twisty road. EVER. As for JAP engines, George Brough dropped JAP engines and went for Matchless based units because JAP were not keeping up with the times and reliability was a problem. He was not the only one. Do some research on Howard Raymond Davies (HRD before they became Vincent). He was the only man to win a Junior and a Senior TT on a 350cc. He also dropped JAP albeit a lot earlier the G. Brough did, because of frustration over reliability and lack of development. Rudge was another one who got sick of JAP and developed their own engines and with them won 1st, 2nd and 3rd in the Junior TT of 1930 and 1st and 2nd in the Senior the same year.

There were many other manufacturers who dropped JAP including AJS, Enfield and Morgan cars. The movie portrayed Lawrence as a publicity seeking self opinionated braggard. Nothing could be further from the truth. He was a shy and private man who was used by the British Army command as propaganda. Damascus is portrayed as being captured in 1918 by Lawrence and his rag tag Arabic army. They were in the vicinity but Damascus was captured by Lt Gen Harry Chauvels Australian Desert Mounted Corps but the opportunity to curry favour with the Arabs was too tempting for the British so they rewrote history once again. Then, when they felt that they didn’t need them anymore, the British treated the Arabs with absolute contempt which Lawrence resisted and objected to. Lawrence hated the limelight. He was on the verge of starvation and joined as a private in the British army and the RAF under the assumed names of John Hume Ross and Thomas Edward Shaw ( in honour of his friend George Bernard Shaw who contributed to the purchase of at least one of his Broughs and probably three or four) so he could eat and have a dry bed. Read the book “The Mint” , published posthumously at his order.

He was basically retired when he was killed. His sexuality was neither relevant nor judged by the Arabs which was another reason he had so much regard and respect for them. Never have I seen any reference to any intimate relationships Lawrence may have had with females either successful or otherwise, frustrating or fulfilling. Lawrence was a larger than life figure despite his protestations. His death eventually led to the almost universal requirement that helmets are worn when riding a motorcycle. The attending surgeon who operated on him and kept him alive for six days after his crash was Hugh Cairns, an Australian working in London. He was convinced that helmets would save lives and kept up the campaign for the rest of his life. His first major success was the British army who were losing two despatch riders a week, mostly to head injuries. In 1941 it became mandatory for all British army motorcyclists to wear helmets. In the couple of years leading up to 1941, roughly 110 motorcyclists died on British roads PER MONTH. In 2013, roughly 28 motorcyclists per month died, despite the increased traffic and population.

Most of the new Broughs have a reproduction OHV engine that externally is similar to the JAP but internally is radically different and better. They are 50 degrees by the way. The gentleman concerned is named Mark Upham and he lives in Austria and runs a business selling spares for many different classic motorcycles. I have never met the man but those who have tell me he’s passionate about preserving the Brough name and reputation. The missive above starts with ” Some points in brief for you collectors” Given the twaddle this person tries to jam down our throats, I can’t wait for his “more history. A lot. But later. ” Let’s hope the desire for accuracy gets stronger. A collector and a rider. BBC - Dorset - History - The mystery of Lawrence of Arabia You are in: Dorset > History > Local History > The mystery of Lawrence of Arabia Colonel T.E Lawrence pictured in Arabia The mystery of Lawrence of Arabia Stories of the Middle Eastern exploits of Colonel Thomas Edward Lawrence, or Lawrence of Arabia, made him a legend, but his hope for a quiet retirement in Dorset ended in tragedy - and conspiracy theories. Colonel Thomas Edward Lawrence, or Lawrence of Arabia, made Dorset his home in his final years.

Born in 1888, T.E. Lawrence was a soldier with extensive experience of the Middle East. When World War I broke out he was made an intelligence officer in Cairo, working with secret rebels against Turkey who ruled the region and were allies of the Germans. T.E Lawrence on his Brough Superior SS80 Also a writer, Lawrence's memoirs The Seven Pillars of Wisdom, documenting his Middle Eastern experiences, helped make him a high profile figure all over the world, hence becoming known as Lawrence of Arabia. A house in Clouds Hill Seeking a quieter life, and by now living in a small house in Clouds Hill in Wareham, he left the military in February 1935. But his retirement was cut short when he was killed in a motorcycle accident in May 1935. Lawrence was riding his much-loved Brough motorbike, on his way from Bovington Camp to Clouds Hill, when he swerved to avoid two boys on bicycles. Despite receiving prompt medical attention at nearby Bovington army camp, he died a few days later.

'A mysterious black car' Lawrence's death at the age of 46 only added to the myth: stories of a 'mysterious black car' at the scene prompted some to think there was more to his death than just a tragic accident. Prime Minister Winston Churchill attended his funeral and was said to have described him as "one of the greatest beings alive in this time". Memorial stone at Clouds Hill Lawrence is buried in Moreton, and a famous stone effigy of Lawrence can be seen at St Martin's Church in Wareham. A small memorial by the road side at Clouds Hill marks the area of the accident. Disproving the rumours Lawrence was a well known local figure, and was often seen around the Wareham area. The town's interest in him continues to this day, and its museum has an exhibition dedicated to Lawrence, and Michael O'Hara, its honorary curator, has helped put together a DVD looking at Lawrence's life - and death - in Dorset. By speaking to local people with connections to Lawrence, some of whom haven't previously spoken publicly about him before, Michael says they've managed to disprove some of the rumours about Lawrence's death.

An illustration from his memoirs He says: "There are lots of conspiracy theories and myths surrounding his death [eg that he committed suicide, or was murdered by government agents], and one of them was that no one was allowed to talk about the accident afterwards. "We spoke to Joe Fletcher, who is the brother of Frank Fletcher, one of the boys involved in the accident. "Frank is no longer with us, but Joe has a letter from the then Commander of Bovington Camp to Frank and Joe's father, saying that they were allowed to talk to the press about the accident, but not about his job at the army camp. "So that blows the theory that the accident was hushed up out of the water." 'An enigma' Michael says there's as much interest in T.E. Lawrence now as there always has been - in the man, his life, and his work. Michael O'Hara, Wareham Town Musuem He says: "The problems in the Middle East today all stem from the post-World War I years and the actions he was involved in, in 1915. That still has relevance today. "Lawrence is an enigma.

It's the ongoing mystery of this very private person [that keeps me interested]. "He's certainly one of the twentieth century's first major celebrities." Lawrence of Arabia and the crash helmet - BBC News BBC News Lawrence of Arabia and the crash helmet By Marek Pruszewicz BBC World Service 11 May 2015 Close share panel Image copyright ALAMY When TE Lawrence - immortalised as Lawrence of Arabia - died 80 years ago he could not have known that the accident which took his life, and the surgeon who tried to save him, would eventually help to save thousands of others. It was pouring with rain on the morning of Sunday 19 May 1935 when TE Lawrence died. The man made famous by his Great War exploits in the Middle East finally succumbed to the head injuries he had suffered six days earlier in a motorcycle accident. "In Lawrence we have lost one of the greatest beings of our time," said his friend Winston Churchill. "I had hoped to see him quit his retirement and take a commanding part in facing the dangers which now threaten the country." It was not to be. At the age of 46, Lawrence of Arabia was dead. Mourning was international.

The New York Times called it a "tragic waste" and speculated that the accident which brought his death had been "unwarranted and perhaps avoidable". Lawrence had been pitched over his motorcycle, a Brough Superior SS100, near his Dorset home. A dip in the road apparently obscured his view of two boys on cycles ahead. The manoeuvring to avoid them cost him his own life. The machine on which Lawrence suffered his fatal crash was guaranteed to be capable of more than 100mph, though there is no firm evidence that he was speeding recklessly when he came off it. Lawrence had nicknamed it "Boa" or "Boanerges" which means "Son of Thunder" in Aramaic, and recorded his love of speed on previous rides. "Boa and I took the Newark road for the last hour of daylight. He ambles at forty-five and when roaring his utmost, surpasses the hundred. A skittish motor-bike with a touch of blood in it is better than all the riding animals on earth," he wrote.

Lawrence of Arabia 1888-1935 Image copyright ALAMY British scholar, writer and soldier who mobilised the Arab Revolt in WW1 A trained archaeologist with deep sympathies for the Arab people, Lawrence became an adviser to the Arabs and led small but effective irregular force against Turkey, attacking communication and supply routes Sensationalised accounts of Lawrence's war exploits made him famous, but he spent the rest of his life trying to escape his own celebrity His memoir, Seven Pillars of Wisdom, formed the basis of David Lean's 1962 film Lawrence of Arabia, starring Peter O'Toole (pictured) Whether Lawrence was riding safely in the run-up to the accident is unclear. "It's difficult to know exactly what the road would have been like in 1935 because it has changed so much, but the evidence is it was purely an accident," says Philip Neale, chairman of the TE Lawrence Society. "He lost control and went over the handlebars. The Broughs didn't have fantastic brakes. The roads were very different in those days.

Even the road in Dorset would have allowed some speed because traffic was light." There was no mention in his obituaries that Lawrence had been without a crash helmet. In 1935 riders were typically bare-headed. Lawrence's death was to help change that - eventually. One of the medics who attended Lawrence was a young doctor called Hugh Cairns, one of Britain's very first neurosurgeons. His post-mortem examination established that Lawrence had suffered "severe lacerations and damage to the brain" when his unprotected head struck the ground. Had he survived, brain damage would probably have left him blind and unable to speak. The loss of Lawrence was not forgotten by Cairns. Image copyright PA "We know from Cairns' diaries that he was thinking very hard about head injuries to motorcyclists and crash helmets before World War Two. They were mentioned in his diaries and the first mention is around the time of TE Lawrence's death," explains Alex Green, consultant neurosurgeon at the Nuffield Department of Surgery in Oxford, which Cairns founded. Cairns began to gather evidence on head injuries suffered by bikers. It was pioneering work.

It was more than six years after Lawrence's death though before Cairns was ready with his first research. In October 1941, and by now consulting neurosurgeon to the Army, he published his initial results in the British Medical Journal. The article was entitled "Head Injuries in Motor-cyclists - the importance of the crash helmet". It revealed that in the 21 months before the start of WW2, 1,884 bikers had been killed on British roads. Of the cases Cairns studied, two-thirds suffered head injuries. Things got even worse with the start of the blackouts prompted by air raids, despite petrol rationing reducing traffic. In the 21-month period from September 1939, 2,279 bikers died, or roughly 110 a month - an increase of 21%. Image copyright Getty Images Image caption 1959: A motorcycle helmet is tested The contrast with modern figures is a stark one. In 2013, 331 bikers - roughly 28 a month - died on British roads, despite the huge rise in traffic volume.

Cairns was careful not to claim that crash helmets would solve everything. He was certain though that they would help. "There can be little doubt that many patients in this series would have lived if their heads had been adequately protected," he wrote. His biggest problem, he conceded, was finding enough riders who did wear helmets voluntarily to show it made a difference. Cairns could only gather evidence from seven riders wearing helmets who were involved in accidents. All survived. "In all of them the head injury was mild, though in four there had been considerable damage to the crash helmet," he wrote. The Army, at that point losing two motorcycle riders a week in accidents, was convinced. In November 1941 it ordered all despatch riders to wear helmets. Cairns had won his first victory. What the Highway Code says Image copyright Thinkstock "On all journeys, the rider and pillion passenger on a motorcycle, scooter or moped MUST wear a protective helmet. This does not apply to a follower of the Sikh religion while wearing a turban. Helmets MUST comply with the Regulations and they MUST be fastened securely.

Riders and passengers of motor tricycles and quadricycles, also called quadbikes, should also wear a protective helmet. Before each journey check that your helmet visor is clean and in good condition." Source: The Highway Code "He provided proper scientific data of the beneficial effects of crash helmets and that was the thing I think. Although people had thought about it as a good idea before they didn't have the data," says Green. Cairns was far from finished on the subject. Now he could start to compare despatch riders, in helmets, with civilian riders, still generally bare-headed. By 1943 Cairns was able to show, in another BMJ paper, that a good helmet could reduce skull fractures in bikers who suffered head injuries by 75%. Three years later, Cairns was appeal to go further. His 1946 study in the BMJ showed that total motorcycle deaths had fallen from a monthly peak of nearly 200 just before the Army introduced helmets to around 50 towards the end of the war - even with civilians still not wearing them. Cairns was now sure of his evidence.

"From these experiments there can be little doubt that adoption of a crash helmet as standard wear by all civilian motorcyclists would result in considerable saving of life," he concluded. Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Bikers in helmets, 1960 Despite Cairns's painstaking research and analysis though it was not until 1973 that the House of Commons voted to make wearing a crash helmet on a motorbike or moped mandatory. Cairns's evidence was not in doubt, and riders increasingly adopted helmets out of choice in the post-war years. For defenders of individual freedom however, that right to choose was sacred. One opponent of the plans for compulsion was Enoch Powell, who attacked the proposals in the House of Commons in April 1973, in the debate on the bill which made helmets compulsory.

"The maintenance of the principles of individual freedom and responsibility is more important than the avoidance of the loss of lives through the personal decision of individuals," Powell told fellow MPs, "Whether those lives are lost swimming or mountaineering or boating, or riding horseback, or on a motor cycle." Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Enoch Powell MP opposed compulsory helmets on libertarian grounds The compulsory wearing of crash helmets marked a turning-point in road safety. Libertarians like Powell had lost the argument, and more compulsion followed, albeit after further opposition. In 1983, after several Parliamentary setbacks, seatbelt wearing in the front of cars became compulsory. By 1991 all car passengers were required to wear one. Whatever the arguments about freedom of choice, there's no doubt that modern crash helmets save lives. "In our unit it's rare to see motorcyclists with head injuries. We deal with a population of three million and we see maybe one a week. You would expect the numbers to be much higher, given there are many motorcycle accidents. I've no doubt helmets must prevent or reduce many of those injuries," says Green. Hugh Cairns did not live to see the change to the law his research helped to bring about.

He died of cancer in 1952. It's seems likely Cairns would have been pleased. But how a free spirit like TE Lawrence would have reacted to being forced to wear a motorcycle helmet is another matter. Post tagged Death - TE Lawrence TE Lawrence Comments (1) A FAMILY STORY A British/Dutch family recently contacted me to make sense of an important chapter of their family history. It raises an interesting question: was the motorcycle accident which led to TE’s death the consequence of a blackout? Imagine yourself in Lincolnshire (England) in 1929. Fifteen-year-old Joyce is walking home from work. While coming down Cross O’ Cliff Hill, she sees a large motorcycle on its kickstand at the side of the road with the engine still running. After looking around, she spots a man lying in a ditch. He is in quite a bad way, shaking, sweating and delirious, speaking a load of nonsense. She turns the motorcycle off and struggles to take the man to her home, which is a few miles away in the city of Lincoln. Her mother immediately tends to him, while her older brother goes off to fetch his bike.

The man, who is well looked after for a few days, bears the name Shaw and serves in the RAF. (*1) You can follow this story on the map . Point A: Place where Shaw was lying at the side of the road. Point B: Joyce’s home, where Shaw was looked after. Point 2: RAF Cranwell, where Shaw was based in 1925 and 1926. For me the most interesting part of this story is the fact that TE (who called himself Shaw at that time) became unwell, and had to park his motorcycle at the side of the road to come to his senses. This is especially interesting because the combination of riding a motorcycle and having fits might have played an instrumental role in the accident which caused his death. MOTORCYCLING TE had a serious passion for motorcycling, and rode the best model going: the famous Brough Superior. Riding it helped him through difficult times. Because of his war and rape trauma, he suffered from depression, and sometimes he was on the verge of madness. To chase off “the broody feeling” (*2) and the restlessness, “movement fast in the night” helped him to temporarily cure his mind.

(*3) “When my mood gets too hot and I find myself wande­ring beyond control I pull out my motor-bike and hurl it top-speed through these unfit roads for hour after hour. My nerves are jaded and gone near dead, so that nothing less than hours of voluntary danger will prick them into life; and the ‘life’ they reach then is a melancholy joy at risking something worth exactly 2/9 a day.” (*4) Sometimes he drove like a madman, with speeds up to 108 miles an hour (173,5 km). (*5) Consequently he also had accidents. For example in May 1926 he got caught with his wheel in a tramline, which left him bleeding from the head and unconscious for a short while. (*6) Later that year he cracked his knee in another accident, ruining his bike. (*7) BLACKOUTS In this story, we find TE lying in a ditch, suffering from what appears to be a traumatic black-out.

The first time I heard of TE’s blackouts was in an exchange of letters between his two friends, Celandine Kennington (*8) and Jim Ede (*9), where they speak about witnessing TE having “epileptic fits”. (*10) It did not make sense to me at that time, because I had never heard any mention of it before. But during my research on trauma, I found that there were more soldiers and officers from the First World War who suffered from fits. These fits were anxiety reactions, caused by dissociated traumatic memories, which would suddenly and unexpectedly take over. They made the victim act as if he were again experi­encing the traumatic situ­ation, leading to violent fright and panic, just as in the orig­inal events or even worse. Psychosomatic symptoms, like shaking and shivering all over and losing consciousness, are the nervous system’s attempt to contain the intense survival energies that remain in body and mind as the result of unresolved trauma. Reliving these traumatic memories would occur in nightmares or even night terrors during sleep, and in flash­backs and dissociative episodes during the day. TE had them all.

Horrible dreams made him afraid of going to sleep, leading to insomnia and to an intensification of his symptoms because of exhaustion. The flashbacks and episodes during the day led people to wonder if TE was practising meditation or yoga, because he could suddenly “go dead”, sitting in the same position for hours, without moving and with the same expression on his face. Others considered him to be moody and introspective, because he could suddenly shut himself off in the middle of a conversation and seem to be miles away. Blackouts are usually triggered by cues that remind the victim in some way of the traumatic situation, or by new situations which cause feelings of powerlessness and fear. TE’s writing about his experiences, though helpful for integration in the long run, possibly made his situation worse. Particularly because of his ambitions surrounding it, to fulfil his wish to become a cre­ative artist, and write one of the great books of his time, like Tol­stoy’s War and Peace or Melville’s Moby Dick. His consciousness became dominated by remembering, and by again being awash with the emotions and sensations involved, which may have been traumatizing in itself. After a blackout, the victim does not remember a thing: he has blacked out.

If anything, he only knows that time has been inexplic­a­bly lost. Losing control over his own body and mind must have horrified TE, since self-control was essential to him. Therefore it must have come as a great shock to learn that it was not his rea­son, but the “traitors from with­in” (*11), which ruled him. His will proved to be unable to neutralize the traumatic images which caused emotional out­bursts. If his will was not able to con­trol his inner self, who or what would? To make it even worse, reli­ving traumatic experiences and emotions sometimes bring about an extreme consci­ous­ness of repres­sed and negated fee­lings. Thus old fears and possibly old traumas, which had been successfully suppres­sed, also came to the surface again. As TE says, “there is the school-fear over me”. (*12) It should be clear by this point, that it is very easy to underestimate the importance and influence of these blackouts on TE’s life after the war.

Having sudden and continuous re-experiences of his rape and war trauma, in the form of blackouts and nightmares, and bringing with it a return of old fears from his childhood, meant an enor­mous attack on his mental and physical stamina, and brought TE to the verge of mad­ness. Fear and anxiety dominated his life: “Fear again; fear everywhere.” (*13) Fear of peop­le, fear of a repeat of the events, fear of a loss of con­trol. He felt himself to be excessive­ly vulner­a­ble, power­less and hel­pless. To deal with his fears and to protect himself from his own frightening reactions, he chose an ordered life for himself in the armed forces, as an ordinary private, while he also started to study the psychol­ogy of fear. (*14) DEATH The family story told here indicates that it is very likely that TE had more incidents caused by black-outs, both with and without his motorcycle. Therefore I would like to suggest a connection with his fatal accident on May 13, 1935. While riding his motorcycle that day, he suddenly came upon two boys on bicycles in a dip of the road.

He swerved to avoid them, which caused him to be thrown from his machine. It was a strange accident, because TE knew the road extremely well, having lived nearby since 1923. Therefore he would have experienced traffic regularly on that particular stretch of road. Besides, he was only doing 40 miles an hour, which for an experienced rider like TE was nothing special, and would have given him enough time to react in the event of an unusual occurence. A sudden blackout would explain this otherwise inexplicable accident, which left TE unconscious. After six days in a coma, he died in hospital on May 19, 1935 from severe brain damage. (*15) NOTES *1 Shaw, as TE called himself officially in those days, was at that time based at RAF Cattewater, in Plymouth (Devon), after his sudden return from India in February 1929. From August 1925 until November 1926, he had served near Lincoln, at RAF Cranwell, which is merely 13½ miles from the place where this story starts. Therefore he might have been visiting old friends at Cranwell.

Another reason for being in Lincoln at that time could have been a visit to the motorcycle factory of George Brough in Nottingham (32 miles from Lincoln), for a check-up to his brand new motorcycle. *2 Letter from TE to Charlotte Shaw 26-12-1925, in: Jeremy & Nicole Wilson (eds.) – T.E. Lawrence Correspondence With Bernard And Charlotte Shaw 1922-1926 (Castle Hill Press 2000),p.158 *3 T.E. Lawrence – Seven Pillars Of Wisdom (Jonathan Cape, London 1935),p.518 *4 Letter from TE to Lionel Curtis 14-5-1923, in: Malcolm Brown (ed.) – The Letters Of T.E. Lawrence (J.M. Dent & Sons, London 1988),p.237 *5 Letter from TE to John Buchan 5-7-1925, in: David Garnett (ed.) – The Letters Of T.E.

Lawrence (Jonathan Cape, London 1938),p.478 *6 Heanor & District Local History Society Newsletter 234 (1999), quoted on T.E. Lawrence Studies List 23-11-1999. *7 Letter to Pat Knowles 30-11-1926, T.E. Lawrence Studies List 19-6-1998. *8 Celandine Kennington (1886-1975), usually known as Mrs Kennington, was the wife of Eric Kennington (1880-1960) the artist who worked with TE on Seven Pillars of Wisdom. TE became friends with both Eric and his wife. She was suffering from manic depression, and felt a special connection with both TE, who comforted her on a few occasions, and his mother. *9 Harold Stanley Ede (1895-1990), better known as Jim Ede, was assistant curator at the Tate Gallery from 1921 to 1936.

It became his vision that art should be shared in a relaxed environment and not in a museum, and he put this open house principle into practice by opening up the wonderful art collection in his house Kettle’s Yard (in Cambridge) to the public. He left it to the University, and I would definitely advise you to visit it, if you have the chance. Ede was a very sensitive man, and suffered an emotional disturbance in the latter part of 1929. While he tended to blame the war for his difficulties, TE tried to help him obtain a more balanced perspective. He wrote that TE “by his kindly sanity on his various visits helped me considerably at this period.” After his death in 1935, Ede started working on a biography about TE, but became depressed studying his life, and never finished it. *10 Correspondence in Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge. *11 T.E. Lawrence – Seven Pillars Of Wisdom (1935),p.468 *12 T.E.

Lawrence – The Mint (Jonathan Cape, London 1973),p.154 *13 Letter to Charlotte Shaw 28-9-1925, in: Malcolm Brown – The Letters of T.E. Lawrence,p.290. Chapter 4 of his memories of his life in the Tank Corps and the RAF, The Mint, is titled “The Fear”. “The root-trouble is fear: fear of failing, fear of brea­king down.” (The Mint,p.154). “For a moment my bedfellow was perfect fe­ar.” (The Mint, p.24) *14 Arnold Lawrence in: A.W. Lawrence – T.E. Lawrence By His Friends (Jonathan Cape, London 1937),p.590 *15 The film fragment of David Lean’s Lawrence Of Arabia (1962) showing TE’s accident, was not filmed at the original location in Dorset, but on a minor road outside Chobham in Surrey. It must be noted too, that in reality the boys on the bicycles were not cycling towards TE, but were riding in the same direction, probably on the wrong side of the road.

Lawrence of Arabia - Riding Vintage Tech 8:17:00 PM "A skittish motorbike with a touch of blood in it is better than all the riding animals on ear... Lawrence of Arabia By Panhead Jim Leave a Comment "A skittish motorbike with a touch of blood in it is better than all the riding animals on earth, because of its logical extension of our faculties, and the hint, the provocation, to excess conferred by its honeyed untiring smoothness." -T.E. Lawrence Most people today know Thomas Edward Lawrence (1888-1935) by his nickname "Lawrence of Arabia" which was made famous by the 1962 film based on his life starring Peter O'Toole. If you've seen the movie, you'll recall the Lawrence was a Lieutenant Colonel in the British Army and played a pivotal role during the Arab Revolt against Ottoman Turkish rule starting in 1916 through to 1918. You may also recall that at the beginning of the movie, he is involved in a fatal motorcycle accident on his Brough Superior SS100.

That wreck really did occur about two months after Lawrence left the military on May 19th, 1935 and he died of the injuries he sustained 6 days later. While alive, Lawrence was an avid motorcyclist. His brand of choice was the Brough Superior and he owned seven of them during his life. He nicknamed them his Boanerges, which is a biblical name meaning "sons of thunder". He also named the motorcycles George I through George VII and at the time of his death George VIII was being built at the factory. George VII, the bike on which he was killed, has been restored and can be seen at the British Imperial War Museum. An interesting fact about the Brough Superiors was that each bike was personally tested by George Brough, the owner of the company. The SS100 models were tested to at least 100 miles per hour, making them incredibly fast for their time. After his fatal wreck, Dr. Hugh Cairns, a neurosurgeon who attended Lawrence, began research into motorcycle related head injuries. The result of that research led to the use of crash helmets by both military and civilian motorcyclists.

Warrior, Diplomat, Statesman … Motorcyclist By Aaron Frank, Photography by Brough Superior Motorcycles Ltd. posted Jan 12th, 2012 at 4:23pm It’s impossible to separate Lawrence of Arabia from the legend of Brough Superior motorcycles. T.E. Lawrence, conferring here with George Brough, owned seven of them. Before Brad Pitt, Steve McQueen or even Marlon Brando, T.E. Lawrence was the original motorcycle-riding celebrity badass. Unlike the others who only played heroic iconoclasts on the big screen, however, Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Edward Lawrence was the real deal. An Oxford-educated archeologist, author and armchair philosopher best known for his autobiographical Seven Pillars of Wisdom, Lawrence was also a decorated British Army veteran who earned his nickname by coordinating the Arab Revolt during World War I. Lawrence was also the first—and arguably the best—motorcycle poet, legendary for lyrical descriptions of his beloved Brough Superior motorcycles.

“A skittish motor bike with a touch of blood in it is better than all the riding animals on earth,” he wrote in a posthumously published essay titled The Road, “because of its logical extension of our faculties, and the hint, the provocations, to excess conferred by its honeyed, untiring smoothness.” Has a more eloquent description of a fast motorcycle ever been penned? Only the incomparable Brough Superior SS100, the fastest and most fabulous motorcycle of the era, could inform such an inspired opinion. Lawrence’s romance with the brand began in 1922, when he used proceeds from sales of his book to purchase his first SS100, an Alpine Grand Sport model. Lawrence owned a total of seven SS100s during his lifetime, and had an eighth on order when he died in 1935.

Each was officially nicknamed “George,” followed by the appropriate Roman numeral (I-VII), though Lawrence habitually referred to any and all of them as “Boanerges”—a biblical reference to the “Son of Thunder.” Lawrence often covered as many as 500 miles per day—almost unthinkable given the road conditions of the time—and claimed, in an endorsement written to George Brough in 1926, to have ridden more than 100,000 miles in four years. He famously rode like there was no tomorrow, and inevitably, one day there wasn’t. In May 1935, just two months after exiting the service, Lawrence crested a blind rise near his Clouds Hill cottage in Dorset and collided with a boy on a bicycle. The boy survived. Lawrence, who suffered severe head injuries, did not. His death was not for naught, however: His attending neurosurgeon, Hugh Cairns, was so distraught over what he considered Lawrence’s “unnecessary death” that he launched a definitive head-injury research campaign that led to a huge increase in the use of motorcycle crash helmets.

As is often the case, this tragically premature demise only added to his mythological status, and the Lawrence of Arabia imprimatur has helped make the Brough Superior SS100 among the most desirable motorcycles in existence. An example that was allegedly gifted to Lawrence by his close friend, Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw, is rumored to have sold privately for $4 million. George VII—the bike Lawrence was riding when he died—is privately held and publicly displayed at London’s Imperial War Museum. One can only imagine the stratospheric value of that… Tags:

Question: T E Lawrence was riding which make of motorcycle in the accident that led to his death in 1935?
Answer: BROUGH